You invest a lot of money on your trade show booth, from creating the marketing materials to designing your banners and table. You also put a lot of time into planning the logistics of the show, coordinating staff, getting load-in and load-out help and handling your inventory. After all this work, you want to maximize the traffic you get from attendees. A canopy offers you several ways to catch everyone’s attention and increase your foot traffic.
Choose Eye-catching Styles
You can put yourself one step ahead of the competition by going with custom canopies rather than the limited color range offered by pre-made options. Incorporate bright colors, cool designs and other eye-catching elements into your graphics. Turn your area into a pop of color that will stand out amid the white, black and navy blue standard tents that tend to dominate trade shows. Choose a design completely different from your competitors, such as creating a castle, cantina, or lounge out of your pop up tent.
Extend Your Branding to Your Staff
Do you want to increase excitement and engagement around your trade show displays? Use brand models or baristas who match the image and energy you’re trying to convey with your company.
Look for staff who create a positive attendee experience and who are capable of quickly picking up information about products and services you offer. They often form the first impression attendees get with your company, so set the tone of your relationship right from the start.
Offer Incentives
Give attendees a reason to go to your booth with giveaways and games. When you put your products or services up as the prize, you drive more traffic and create lifelong customers for your company. If your business doesn’t sell anything that makes a good giveaway, reach out to businesses with complementary items.
Games can take many forms, from scavenger hunts around the event to spin the wheel games that encourage interaction. The sky is the limit on how you want to incorporate some fun into your event marketing campaign, but make sure that you’re ready to get people involved when they come over to your custom canopy so they walk away thoroughly educated about your products.
Want to go further? Incorporate Snapchat Strategies
If you skip over Snapchat when you’re at a trade show, you aren’t making the most out of your social media channels. Here are a few ways to drive engagement on this rapidly growing platform.
Custom Geofilters
Snapchat Geofilters provide you with an excellent opportunity to get plenty of branded content out there. Adapt your filter to match the trade show’s industry and your branding elements, then sit back and watch while photos of your trade show displays go far and wide. This user-generated content gives you excellent reach on this social network.
Behind the Scenes Access
Take behind-the-scenes snaps throughout the trade show. A few opportune times to do this include during your setup process, after hours at the event and when you’re getting ready to head home. You may assume that no one is interested in the nitty-gritty details of the show, but you’re showing a side to the event that attendees don’t get to see.
Event Reports
Do you hold events at your booth throughout the day? Let attendees know what they missed and give them information about other times they should stop by your displays.
Final Thoughts
Trade shows give you an excellent chance to connect with potential clients, customers and partners face to face. Maximize the value you get out of the event by leveraging custom tents, building engagement and reaching out through one of the fastest-growing social networking sites. You put a lot of work into setting up for this event, now it’s time to reap the rewards of your preparation.
